Family's real life African thriller

From the archive, first published Monday 23rd Apr 2007.

Murder, rape and wild animal chases are featured in many fast-paced thrillers.

But one author's latest book is far from fantasy- he based Blood In The Sand on experiences of his closest family and friends in South Africa.

Vic Gebhardt's life there brought him into contact with a diverse tribal, racial and cultural scene which led to many exciting but also some shocking situations.

White farmers were key targets in a climate which was fast turning against them in the early 1993.

Rebel groups stole the Gebhardt's cars, shot at them and murdered their neighbours, and with two young girls, Mr Gebhardt and his wife Jenni decided they had to leave.

After a ten year stay in neighbouring Botswana, they moved to Wakes Colne then Coombe Lodge, Earls Colne, where Mr Gebhardt starting putting his experiences on paper.

Looking back on their life, the couple recalled the day they knew they had to leave home.

Mrs Gebhardt, 51, said: " We were walking in the fields of our farm one day, me and my eldest, and a bullet came whizzing past me. That decided it for me."

Her daughters, Brigitte and Inga, were seven and four at the time.

The army had issued them with rifles. Mrs Gebhardt, a music teacher, said: "I had to take the gun with me to school and come back with it again. They the rebels used to go for the electricity supply and come and tamper with it so the man of the house would come out, and they would kill him and go in for the women and children."

Mr Gebhardt, now 63, had been principal percussionist with the country's National Philharmonic Orchestra for 29 years.

He saved his drums, and his wife's piano but they lost everything else. No-one would buy the farm.

Their Botswana life was what Mr Gebhardt describes as their most rewarding period. They got a house with Mrs Gebhardt's music post at an international school, and Mr Gebhardt started a safari business- African Encounters- with his own Land Rover. He did everything from the driving, to putting up tents, cooking and hosting.

"I did it for about two years but it was very hard work, doing everything myself. When I came home I was at death's door. In the summer I was offered a job managing luxury safari camps," he said.

There he met people from all over the world including Japanese royalty and the late Hollywood actor Jack Lemmon, who he described as a really friendly, approachable man.

Brigitte had already started at an English boarding school, and the whole family moved when Inga got a place to study ballet at the Arts Educational School in Tring.

The contrast for all of them was stark.

"The first time I visited a friend's home here in England", Mr Gebhardt said. "I looked out of the window and it was the first time I had looked out of a window without burglar bars on it. We have six foot fences and security guards and lots of dogs guarding houses at home. I just couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe that they wouldn't be broken into. Anybody can just walk into the yard."

"I love it here," Mrs Gebhardt added. "We useds to be chased by hippos and lions and snakes. I thank God for England with its rabbits and foxes."

Since arriving, the family has adjusted, although Mr Gebhardt misses Africa and still needs to go back for his "fix" every year. His first book, African Encounters, was his real-life story and he is already working on the sequel to Blood In The Sand, his first novel.

Although he has changed many of the names, to him the events are still scarily real.

Mr Gebhardt's books are available by visiting www.vicgebhardt.com or through Amazon.co.uk